Police receive calls of ... snakes?

Two incidents involving serpents happen Thursday.

Two incidents involving serpents happen Thursday.

July 22, 2006|ANITA MUNSON Tribune Staff Writer

PLYMOUTH -- It's an unusual day when emergency responders in Marshall County receive calls about snakes. But they answered two of them Thursday. The first call came in earlier Thursday, around 3:20 p.m., from Tammie Benson, whose 11-year-old son Ray was bitten in the 3900 block of North Michigan Road by what she told the dispatcher was a gray and black snake. The boy, she said, had puncture wounds to his leg, and she asked EMS workers to check him out. Lakeville-LaPaz responded to the call, transporting the boy to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center. A hospital spokesman confirmed Friday that the boy was treated and released Thursday. "It only hurt a little bit," Ray said Friday, explaining he had been on his bicycle, riding up near the front of the mobile home park near the mailboxes when he felt the bite before he actually saw the snake. Ray said hospital workers examined the wound to his left leg, saw there was no redness or swelling, and determined the bite was not poisonous. Another call came in around 7:15 p.m. Thursday from a man who thought he'd cornered a rattlesnake inside a home he was working on in the 18000 block of 7B Road. Police attempted to contact a wildlife removal expert, and the man in whose home the snake was found called a friend who determined it to be an Eastern milk snake. The snake, whose teeth are not its primary weapon, is a constrictor that feeds on mice and other rodents, according to Indiana Department of Natural Resources experts. The Eastern milk snake usually hides under logs, rocks and boards during the day, venturing out at night to coil around its prey, suffocating it before swallowing it whole. Considered to be an asset because it feeds on small rodents and other snakes, the snake was released into the woods in back of the caller's property, police records indicate. At first glance, the Eastern milk snake might be confused for a rattlesnake because of its markings and because, if pestered or threatened, it may vibrate the tip of its tail rapidly, and strike.